'Police had received a report at about 7am that a body had been found in a top-floor apartment. Initial investigations suggest that Man hanged himself, but authorities are still looking into the precise circumstances surrounding his death.

'A report in the Shanghai-based online news outlet, The Paper – citing anonymous sources familiar with the case ­– said that authorities had advised Man’s relatives and friends not to pay their condolences at his home for now, and that the city’s party committee held a meeting to discuss his death on Tuesday afternoon.

'Man, 60, was the chief prosecutor and Communist Party boss of Hefei procuratorate for nearly 10 years.

'The prosecution of Gu, a former lawyer and wife of Bo, a former member of the Politburo, was the biggest political scandal to hit China in decades.

'In 2012, the Hefei procuratorate charged Gu with the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.'